Michael Jordan vs Muhammad Ali

[BoxingFan85]

Ali and it’s not even up for debate.

[HewJohnson]

Ali and it�s not even up for debate.

Well technically, it is up for debate, as you can see, it�s being debated right here.

[Ubeja Vontell]

Ali and it’s not even up for debate.

You got it, everybody has heard of Muhammad Ali, that can't be said about any basketball player.

Boxing has been around for how long? How many movies?

Hell.....

[too_much]

You are asking this on a boxing site, wonder if you asked the same question on a basketball site?

[BoxingFan85]

Well technically, it is up for debate, as you can see, it�s being debated right here.

Only sport fans from the 80s know Jordan. Ali stood for much more than sport and even the remotest of places on earth know him or heard of him.

You can debate all you want but that doesn�t change the popularity lol

[HewJohnson]

Only sport fans from the 80s know Jordan. Ali stood for much more than sport and even the remotest of places on earth know him or heard of him.

You can debate all you want but that doesn�t change the popularity lol

Well that�s because Ali was a man of the people, where as Jordan was the just a straight up savage.

[DreamerUSA]

Guess it depends on the criteria. Just from a straight up sports comparison it is pretty close. I would probably give Ali the edge in the sheer number of people that know who he is, but a decent portion of that was involvement in social issues of the time. Jordans overall impact on his sport though is larger than Ali's impact on boxing. Jordan took a sport that was brought back from the brink of extinction by Magic and Bird, who made it popular domestically, and literally turned it into a global brand. Their isn't another athlete that had the impact Jordan did on their sport.

I would have to say Jordan if we are just talking sports.

[BrometheusBob.]

This thread has me wondering whose name will still be a household name in 50 years. You'd think Jordan's name will last longer since his sport is more relevant but Ali is a bigger name than Wilt ever was. Shrug.

You can't really say much negative about them as athletes or competitors. They did what they were asked to do. But gun to my head, I say Jordan was more impressive.